Release Date – 4/15/11
Sidney Prescott has returned to her hometown to promote her book, which deals with the murders that have surrounded her throughout her life. The people in the town view her as a local celebrity, some saying she brings evil wherever she goes and others who are very interested in her. Her young cousin looks up to her as a role model, staying strong and holding together over the years. But on the day Sidney returns, once again there are serial murders in the small town. The local police department is clueless while teenagers are being killed left and right. Who has taken over the identity of Ghostface now? The movie was closer to the original but maybe a little too close. The whole movie within a movie angle gets taken to absurd lengths and most of it becomes a rehashing of the previous films.
It’s not a shocker that Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette reprise their roles from the previous three films. They aren’t exactly tearing it up at the box office. Campbell plays Sidney Prescott, who now seems emotionless probably due to having the worst life of all time. But she’s embracing her celebrity status and cashing in with a book. Cox plays Gale Weathers-Riley, happily married to the sheriff but suffering from writer’s block. She successfully penned three books dealing with the Woodsboro murders and 7 movies have come out based on her stories. She’s almost enjoying the fact that some action has started up again. David Arquette plays Sheriff Dewey Riley. He gained some credibility over the years and has successfully run the police department, until now. The police are complete idiots in this movie. Newcomers are played by Emma Roberts, Sidney’s cousin Jill, and her friend Kirby played by Hayden Panettierre with a lesbian haircut and too cool for the room attitude. Other police officers are played by Marley Shelton, Adam Brody and Anthony Anderson. Lots and lots of characters, meaning lots and lots of death scenes.
Scream 4 isn’t very scary. They definitely amp up the blood and there’s some pretty gory deaths. Wes Craven may be a master of horror but lately he has been stale. This movie focuses on the Internet and the movie Stab, which is the movie within a movie based on previous events in Scream movies. They actually poke fun at the Saw franchise by talking about unnecessary and confusing sequels. Little cameos from Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin too. Its just too much going on for a horror movie. The original Scream rejuvenated the slasher genre and took the “guess the killer” theme to a new level. They went downhill from there but that’s expected with horror sequels. The twist in the end of this one was not believable at all and pretty corny. I like the shout outs to the original movie but then it got a little out of hand with web cams and live streams and just nonsense. Its better than Scream 3 but its nowhere close to the original, or even the sequel.
IMDB – 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 57%
Movie Wiseguys – 5/10
